Late vocation: Taytay celebrates the diaconate of 71-year-old Bienvinido A. Salinas
Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo ordained the new deacon yesterday in the cathedral. The latter is the oldest seminarian in the apostolic vicariate. After a first stint as a seminarian, he married and had three children. After his wife's death, he felt the call of the altar again and will soon be a priest.
Manila (AsiaNews) – Yesterday, at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Worker in Taytay (Palawan), seminarian Bienvinido A. Salinas, Jr., aged 71, was ordained a deacon by Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo, Apostolic Vicar of Taytay.
Although coming late, this vocation is no less meaningful and valuable in the new deacon’s life and that of the entire Philippine Church, an historic moment for the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay since Salinas is the oldest seminarian to be ordained a deacon, a prelude to his future priestly ordination.
In his address to the new deacon, Bishop Pabillo exhorted him in his homily to remain faithful, as a missionary, to Christ and the Gospel.
Salinas had been a seminarian decades ago, but God had called him to serve as a professional and esteemed lawyer, which he practised for years.
At the same time, he started a family and raised children. However, the call of the altar never went away, and after his wife’s death, and with the permission of his children, he went back to the seminary.
Father Robert Reyes, parish priest at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Diocese of Cubao, is Deacon Salinas’s spiritual guide in his vocation to the priesthood.
Salinas and Reyes were classmates 55 years ago, at the Jesuit San José Seminary, which is associated with the Ateneo de Manila University, in the Philippines, where Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, former prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples in Rome, also studied.
At some point in his studies, Salinas changed direction, choosing to pursue a career in law and work in the legal profession, get married, and raise three children.
For Fr Reyes, “God calls without ceasing. He has called Salinas again to the service of the Gospel. [. . .] Years ago, in 1972, we both dreamt of becoming priests. Our lives evolved differently. But our friendship, our brotherhood, persisted through the years.”
Yet, “God never stopped pursuing us, especially Salinas. Finally, it became clear as it always was then God calls, and like Samuel, Salinas answers, ‘Speak, Lord … your servant is listening’,” the clergyman said.
At 71, Salinas is the oldest seminarian to be ordained a deacon.
“I had the privilege to accompany his colourful and fateful journey as a seminarian, married lawyer with three kids, widower, and now, seminarian again and deacon,” noted Fr Reyes, who thanked Bishop Pabillo for his trust in and support for Salinas.
Before the ordination was over, the new deacon expressed his gratitude to God and thanked Bishop Pabillo for his pastoral guidance and acceptance as a missionary in the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay, which covers about โโ413.30 km2, including towns in the northern part of Palawan Province, as well as island municipalities.
In 2020, the area was home to 694,962 people, of whom 485,952 were Catholics across 24 parishes. In addition to Christians from other denominations, the population includes Muslims, Tagbanua and Molbog, and Indigenous peoples.
The Vicariate has more than 40 diocesan priests, seven men religious, and two permanent deacons.
Filipino is the main language in the area, but local languages โโlike Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Caray-a are also spoken, as are native Palawan dialects such as Cuyunon and Agutaynen.
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18/06/2023 14:19
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